


Every Other Tuesday to Game Night to Sunday Dinner

by BananaStrings



Category: Blue Bloods (TV)
Genre: Affection, Conversations, Episode: s03e05 Risk and Reward, Family, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:20:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25738693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BananaStrings/pseuds/BananaStrings
Summary: Jamie and Sam meet through Danny but continue to meet without him.
Relationships: Sam Croft/Jamie Reagan
Kudos: 13





	Every Other Tuesday to Game Night to Sunday Dinner

Every other Tuesday, Danny and Jamie had a night out. This time, Danny brought a guest. Jamie's brother was smiling up at the taller man and sipping at a pint glass. Luckily, in the Reagan family alcohol brought out the more easygoing traits not the less, so Danny had already shed half of the day’s weight when Jamie arrived. When they left again, he knew Danny would blast his corny music in his car, to bring him the rest of the way back to sane before he made it home.

“Hey, Jamie,” Danny greeted, giving a flick of his fingers at the barman for Jamie's pint. “This is Sam.”

Jamie extended a hand for a shake. The fair-haired man towering above them was slender but sharp in his movements. Though obviously trained to fight, his broad hand stayed gentle in Jamie’s grip—law enforcement, but something that required diplomacy. He must have been connected with the International Liaisons Unit that Danny had paired up with on this last case. The precise part in his slicked down hair and the slim-fitting, dark suit read detective.

“So, my brother is too rude to invite you out of politeness," Jamie ribbed. "You must have done something to really impress him.”

“How about followed his lead?” Sam joked back.

“Nah, I followed his," Danny protested. "He got the location that saved Mulrow’s life.”

Jamie watched Sam give a little shake of his head and open his mouth, but Danny cut him off.

“You were the one who knew the Malaysian system and how to scare that little punk.”

“Well, I had to bring something to the table. Otherwise what are all my years of experience worth?”

“A heck of a lot today,” Jamie concluded.

Danny raised his glass and Sam’s thunked against it with a satisfying sound.

“Yeah, this was one of the good days,” Sam agreed. “Thanks, Danny.”

“So what happens now that your case is closing so well?” Danny asked. “You get to come home too?”

“I’ll be here for at least a month to make sure everything goes smoothly, then it just depends on how long the wait for trial is. It could be a couple of years considering the logistics, in which case, I’ll be reassigned in the interim.”

“The wait’s always rough," Danny agreed, "but, hey, just gives you the chance to be a hero in _the next_ country.”

“Now you’re just playing me.”

“No, he’s pretty high on you,” Jamie observed.

“This is like the most levelheaded cop I’ve ever worked with,” Danny announced to Jamie. “Kept _me_ cool.”

“And that’s saying something,” Jamie chimed back.

“I could stand more days like this one," his older brother continued. "Get the bad guys. Save the good guys. And still be smiling at the end of the night.”

“Do you usually have this effect on people?” Jamie asked to Sam.

Sam shook his head with a smile. “We worked well together.”

“Anyone who can tame a Reagan is worth keeping in touch with.”

“Look us up again,” Danny agreed, sensing the night winding down.

“Yeah, who knows, maybe we’ll find another spare minute this month.”

They left smiling, promising that even if they didn’t find a spare minute, they could at least meet back here again in two weeks.

“I don’t think he’s going to make it tonight,” Jamie guessed, after he and Sam had been waiting for about twenty minutes at the same bar as the first time.

There hadn’t been a spare minute in the past two weeks, and it looked like Danny hadn’t found a spare one yet, not even for their brotherly bonding appointment.

“Are you in a hurry?” Sam asked.

“No, not at all,” Jamie said, relaxing back in his chair. “I’m done for tonight. How about you? Got your next assignment yet?”

“I haven’t actually. They’ve extended me another month here.”

“Something going wrong with the case?”

“No, we’re good. They’re just finding a lot they want to use me for. I’m not sure where I’m going to end up.”

“Must be hard to be so up in the air.”

“I’ve gotten used to it.”

“Do you have a family waiting to find out what’s next?”

“No, this bust has been big enough to take up all my time the past couple years," Sam answered. "Not that it stopped my sister from trying. Every time I visit, she introduces me to a guy she thinks I need to meet, but not a lot of people understand this job. They either tend to not want to know or to want to know too much."

“Yeah, I get those stares," Jamie agreed, "where I don’t know if they’re sweet on me or the uniform.”

Sam laughed. "They’re probably thinking you don’t look like a cop."

"Oh, I don’t?" Jamie joked. "Well, to be fair, I went to school to be a lawyer."

"That would have been worse," Sam joked back. "You’re too baby-faced for a courtroom. You could probably work an undercover assignment well though."

"Yeah, been there, done that."

"Not your favorite?"

"I don’t know. It did a lot of good. It’s just undercover work is not like pretending. All the choices I made had the exact same consequences no matter what name I was using."

"You had to make some tough choices."

"Tough to live with," Jamie admitted but looked up with a smile. "Are you playing the concerned big brother role?"

"Is that what Danny does?"

"Nope."

They both laughed.

"How about we start with friendship?" Sam offered.

"Okay."

Jamie was starting to understand Danny’s feelings about working with Sam. Jamie was sitting beside Sam on the little sofa in Jamie’s apartment to watch basketball tonight, and despite the calling out and the vigor of the game, Sam remained at ease. Jaime’s laughter as a result seemed to be coming easier than it had in a long time. Even when the joking turned to creative insults against the opposing team, there was still none of the aggression that he was used to growing up in a family of cops.

"So have you always been this calm?" Jamie asked during an ad break.

"I’ve always been quiet," Sam admitted. "Malaysia taught me to be still. And, not for any other reason than it’s hot there all the time, and any extraneous movement is impossible."

"I thought you looked a little too icy for the tropics."

"I am, but it gave me a reputation that I could use."

"Cold and calculating?"

"Yes, an easy one," Sam affirmed, "keep my mouth shut and make people nervous. Made my job that much easier. But, I was never the schemer part of the equation there. I was all intel. I made sure I knew what everybody else knew at all times."

"That’s sounds ridiculously difficult."

"Not if you’re the one dispensing the information," Sam said with a sly glance.

"Well, you’ve got a point. Though I thought you said you kept your mouth shut."

"Made it all the more enticing when I’d say anything at all."

"That’s playing dirty."

"You cared about the people you brought in," Sam guessed.

Jamie sighed. "Not exactly. I only got the job because I saved a random guy’s life at a bar who happened to be somebody useful and who wanted to make it personal by thanking me, when he got out of the hospital."

"And you made it personal too."

"Yeah. I have no idea why."

"Do you do that a lot?"

Jamie nodded.

"Well, then it had nothing to do with him. It’s just the way you are."

Jamie looked over at him. The television was still muted though the game was back from break. "I don’t think it’s a good way to be."

"What? A person?"

"I guess it’s more that I don’t really know how to be this way," Jamie confessed then one side of his mouth crooked up. "Do people tell you you’re easy to talk to a lot?"

Sam popped his brows.

"Right, intelligence officer, of course," Jamie said with a wave of his hands in exasperation. "Does it bother you? I mean I’m talking to you about stuff I don’t talk to anybody else about. I don’t want to be burdening you with all my private thoughts."

"This is just conversation to me. It’s a lot more of a pleasure than a burden."

Sam held eye contact and let Jamie get a look. He did look like he might be simply happy that they were getting to know one another, and Jamie saw that his offer of friendship had been genuine. He felt strangely moved as he turned his head back toward the game. It was a warm feeling, and he was glad Sam was there.

"I’m not really a lot of cloak and dagger in my day to day," Sam added. "Most of what I’m in charge of is making sure people know what they can and cannot do wherever they are."

"Sounds comforting," Jamie murmured.

The comment surprised a laugh out of Sam. "It is to me. I like to know the rules. For other people, it’s more frustrating."

"How the heck did you get along with Danny?" Jamie asked, attention diverted to Sam again.

Sam shrugged one shoulder. "He seems to like stability."

Jamie looked away to think, taking a swallow of his cola. He thought of the way Danny would seem to come alive at Sunday dinners, ready to talk about anything and listen to the rest of them. He remembered his brother's little ritual of bending down to kiss Linda’s head every time he rose from the table. The table always had the same seating arrangements. The family always used the same rules for how to share the food together.

"I guess I never really thought of him that way." Jamie looked back over, beginning to smile. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For showing me that I’ve got something in common with my brother after all."

Sam smiled back.

Jamie walked him to the door after the game but halted there.

"Hey," he said to halt Sam as well, "you know how long you’re going to be in the city yet?"

Sam shook his head. "Do you want me to call you when I find out?"

"Yeah," Jamie answered, dropping his chin for a moment. "That’d be great."

In the quiet pause, he looked back up.

"In case I don’t see you again before I leave, I’d like to hug you goodbye?"

Sam's offer upticked at the end like a query so as not to push.

"Okay, sure."

It had sounded like a nice thing to do, but as Jamie’s arms encircled Sam’s body, it felt like an important one too. Their jobs were dangerous. When there was a chance to show someone you cared about that you cared, you took it. When Sam pulled back, Jamie found himself a little too overwhelmed to raise his head. He was glad for the steadying hand Sam had left on his shoulder.

"Take care of yourself, man," Jamie said, gaze about mid-chest, that warm solid place he’d been pressed to a moment before.

"You too," Sam returned, giving his shoulder a soft squeeze before letting go.

As soon as Jamie locked up after him, he was pulling out his phone.

"Hey, Danny," Jamie greeted, "I think I found somebody to bring to Sunday dinner."

He listened to Danny’s startled, happy laughter.


End file.
